shows that the "Alans predicted futurity by inscribing straight line-sticks with secret enchantments." (Ammian. Marcell. xxxi, § 2, 24.) The Sortes Prænestina of Cicero (De Div. ii, 40) were "inscribed on oak with marks of ancient letters." Cæsar (Bell. Gall. ii, c. 53,) speaks of similar Sortes among the Germans; and Tacitus (Germ. c. x.) notes that "twigs or staves were marked with certain signs." We have found no characters more ancient than Oghams and Ogham-Runes in Northern Europe, and the conclusion is obvious.

I do not propose any attempt at determining whether the Ogham was or was not "a steganography, a cypher, a series of symbols;" in fact, a secret form of the Roman alphabet "used only by the initiated among the pre-Christian and the Christian Gaoidheilg." Dr. Graves has laboured hard to place the abecedarium, not the characters,18 in the rank of a comparatively modern cryptogram, known to knights and literati, and used chiefly for monumental and magical purposes. He has proved conclusively that the average of Ogham inscriptions are as simple as the Etruscan, often consisting of a single proper name, generally a genitive governed by "Lia" (lapis sepulchralis), expressed or understood. it is accompanied by a patronymic; in Etruria by a matronymic; the letters occur mixed with Runes, and even with Latin, as Miss Margaret Stokes has shown in her admirable volume of "Inscriptions.

In Ireland

17" Hermothena,” vol. iv., p. 400, and vol. v., pp. 208–252.

19

18 The attention of the reader is called to the distinction between the alphabetic order and the characters which compose the alphabet.

19 Part IV., Plates ii. and iii. of "Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language," chiefly collected and drawn by George Petrie, LL.D., and

The Bishop of Limerick's elaborate and extensive arguments concerning the modern origin and the secret nature of Ogham appear to have been generally adopted. Mr. Gilbert Gordie20 expresses the

popular opinion, "Oghams are, as we know, an occult form of monumental writing practised by the Celtic ecclesiastics of the early middle ages. The Maes Howe inscription appears to be a cryptogram, and the same is the case with its equivalent, the Arabic Mushajjar, or "Tree-Alphabet."

Professor Rhys is the objector in chief to the Bishop of Limerick's theories and opinions. He holds that the " stepped" or "ladder" Ogham is purely artificial, and found chiefly in the "Essay on Ogham." He believes that the cryptic runes, from which the "fair writing" has been derived, are not proved old enough in any shape to originate the Ogham. He does not see any cause for accepting the assertion that "the Ogham alphabet was intended for cryptic purposes;22 owning the while, "it is possible, however, that it may have, in the hands of pedants, been so applied, just as it was growing obsolete. He quotes (p. 302) from a well known member of the Royal Irish Academy, "Ogham inscriptions are of the simplest."

edited by Miss Stokes. Also Cav. Nigra, Reliquie Celtiche, Turin, 1872. The oldest Roman alphabet found in Ireland is of the fifth century (O'Donovan, xxxvii).

20 Vol. xii., part 1. Edinburgh, 1877. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Scotland.

21 "On Irish Ogham Inscriptions." A letter addressed (at special request) by John Rhys, M.A., late Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, to William Stokes, M.D., F.R.S., &c., President of the Royal Irish Academy, dated Rhyl, Oct. 28, 1874. Read Jan. 11, 1875.

22 Loc. cit., p. 301.

Professor Rhys,23 treating of the Welsh inscriptions which date from the second century, shows how the Ogmic alphabet, claimed for their own country by certain Irish antiquaries, passed from Wales to Ireland; and that the art, if ever invented by the Kelts, must have been due to the ancestors of the Welsh. He believes, moreover, that the Ogham, supposed to typify the rays of light and similar poetic fancies, the rude system. used before the introduction of Runes, was borrowed by the Kimri from their Teutonic neighbours. He hazards a conjecture that though the origin is still hidden in darkness, it was based upon the Phoenician-a conclusion apparently formed before reading my letter to the Athenæum.24 In his address to that great scholar, the late William Stokes, he would assign the chief part of the earlier class of Irish Oghams to the sixth century, or, rather, to the interval between the fifth and the seventh. He suspects that one instance, at least, dates before the departure of the Romans from Britain-especially alluding to the Loghor altar examined by Dr. S. Ferguson. He ends with saying, "It is noteworthy that British Ogham-writing is to be traced back to a time when we may reasonably suppose Kimric nationality to have revived, and a reaction against Roman habits and customs to have, to a certain extent, taken place, when the last Roman soldier had taken

23 "Lectures on Welsh Philology." London: Trübner, 1877. I know the book only from Mr. O. H. Sayce's review (The Academy, May 12, 1877). It is out of print; and we can only hope that the learned author will listen to the voice of the publishers, who are clamouring for a second edition.

24 April 7, 1877.

his departure from our island. But since the Roman alphabet had been introduced into Britain, it is highly improbable that another and a clumsier one should have been invented and got into use. The inevitable inference then seems to be, that Ogmic-writing dates from a time anterior to the introduction of the Roman alphabet."

Upon this part of the subject, Dr. now Sir Samuel Ferguson, poet and scholar, informed me that in one of the county histories of Cumberland, whose author's name he had forgotten, a Palm-rune attracted his attention. He spent a long day at the Shap Quarry, near Dalston, worked to supply the Prætentura, or Southern Roman Wall of Hadrian or Surrus, connecting the Tyne with the Solway Firth. This interesting relic of an alphabet, which may have dated from the days of the Latin Legionaries, had unfortunately disappeared. The "Cave-pit," at Cissbury, near Worthing, shows at least one character,25 and two imperfect cuts contain two Phoenician and Etruscan as (Plate XXV, Figs. 1 and 2). "Inscribed Bone Implements," by J. Park Harrison, M.A.: he divides the marks into two orders: Symbols and Simple signs. the latter are Branch-Runes-e.g.,

also

See

chalk

Many of

and

F

The most important evidence adduced by Prof. Rhys in favour of his Teutonic-Kimric theory is, that the third alphabetic letter the Jim (soft g as George) of the Arabs and Phoenicians; and the Gimel (or hard 9 as Gorge) of the Hebrews and Greeks who pro

nounce their Gamma as

Ghamma, becomes a ch

(Church). This fact, he says, can be explained only 25 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, May, 1877, page 441.

on the supposition that the syllabary reached the Kelts through the Teutons.

According to the Uraicept, the "Bethluisnion" was invented by the Scythian King, Fenius Fearsaidh, who, about one generation before the Hebrew Exodus 26 came from his northern home and established a philological school of seventy-two students in the Plains of Shinar.27 In the "Book of Lecan " is found a tradition supposed to be interpolated, that, "Ogma, the sun-faced," brother of Breas, King of Ireland, both sons of Eladan or Elathan (Sapientia), in the days of the Teutonic (?) Tuath De Danaan, about nineteen centuries B.C., "invented the letters of the Scots, and the names belonging to them.” Prof. Rhys opines that this mythical Irish hero was to be identified in ancient Gaul under the name Ogmius," with the Roman Hercules, in the Welsh Ofydd," a savant, the Ovate of the Eisteddfod. Kimric legend also traced the origin of letters to Ogyrven, father of the Dawn-goddess "Gwenhwyfar" (Guinevere), the fabled wife of Arthur. Our author also opines that " Ogyrven" is, letter for letter, the Zend Angro-Maniyus or Ahriman, the bad-god of night and darkness and cold. Here, then, we are in full Persia and amongst her sons, the Manichæans, of all sects perhaps the most vital and persistent. But granting the Teutonic origin of Ogham, the question arises, says my erudite friend, Prof. Sprenger, "When and how did the Teutons borrow it from the Phoenicians ?"

26 "Hermothena," vol. iv., pp. 452-53. The legend is universal in the ancient literature of Ireland.

27 The date is given with considerable variations.